Earlier this week, America’s most popular rat-fronted pizza restaurant and entertainment venue announced a plan to phase out some of its animatronic performers, and admirers of Chuck E. Cheese’s iconic leering robots are in mourning.

As a kid was there anything better than going to Chuck E. Cheese's for a friend's birthday party? Absolutely not. But in hindsight, was it really so great? You had to wait in line for the arcade games, there was usually someone's younger sibling who wouldn't stop crying, and every last inch of that place felt like it…

Did you know that the same guy founded Atari (in 1972) and the pizza/video-game chain Chuck E. Cheese? Nolan Bushnell was ousted from both companies right before they hit the big time. And now he's writing a science-fiction novel.

A movie based on Nolan Bushnell's founding of Atari was sold to Paramount on Friday and Leonardo Dicaprio is set to play the lead. Most people remember Bushnell for Atari, but I remember him for the scathing pit of rancid pizza and yuppie spawn called Chuck E. Cheese.